Fortescue Metals : NT Resources Week

Michael Gunner

Fortescue Energy: Towards Real Zero

13 September 2023

Darwin Convention Centre

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Thank you for your introduction.

I pay my respects to the Traditional Custodians of the land upon which we meet, the Larrakia people.

And I acknowledge their commitment to a green future, with plans for a partnership between Larrakia Energy and the Korea Midland Power Company for a 300MW solar plant near Middle Arm.

That's big vision stuff. It's also an achievable vision - and I wish them all speed in making it a reality.

It is a real pleasure to be back at Resources Week, this time in a very different capacity.

When I resigned as Chief Minister last May, the only thing that was certain about my next step was that I wanted to spend more time with my family - to be there as our boys grew up.

When Andrew Forrest offered me a role at Fortescue Future Industries, now known as Fortescue Energy, I knew I couldn't say "No."

But the truth is, because of my boys, I had to pause.

Because I found myself confronting an apparently stark contradiction.

Fortescue, or FMG, is the third-biggest exporter of Australian iron ore.

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It's a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions, all the way from the Pilbara to the ships that transport it to the furnaces of China.

How then did it make sense that FMG could be such a part of the global emissions problem, while Fortescue Energy was simultaneously spearheading the global race for Real Zero?

Wasn't it kind of like the left hand not knowing what the right hand's doing?

In fact, it makes perfect sense.

You know what they say.

Clean up your own backyard.

Fortescue Energy was born precisely because Fortescue Metals had a giant problem.

Everyone involved in resources knows you've got to think differently when it comes to solving problems.

We know that because our extraction operations are usually in remote locations - and that means quick fixes are not immediately at hand.

But it also means that opportunities arise for those with skills and imagination.

And that's what's so exciting.

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Fortescue Energy is a front-runner in developing and pioneering the Real Zero industry.

To be involved in decarbonising our mining operations while producing clean energy is an incredibly positive mandate.

And Fortescue is proudly taking leadership on this in the corporate world.

We are the biggest heavy industry company in the world with a genuine plan to reach Real Zero - and to get there we need green hydrogen.

Our target is to achieve Real Zero emissions - Scope One and Two - across our iron ore operations by 2030.

That's industry leading. But 2030 is coming at us fast.

Fine words and noble ambition won't get us there. Nor will selling a tall story about being green just to make ourselves feel better.

What's needed is urgent action.

Real Zero means no fossil fuels and, where possible, no offsets.

It is not acceptable that wealthy companies can absolve themselves of responsibility by paying to pollute.

That's nowhere near good enough.

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Offsets can only be a temporary solution while the innovation required to eliminate fossil fuels is developed.

Fortescue is investing US$6.2 billion - that's more than $9.5 billion in Australian dollars - to realise this aim by 2030 across all our iron ore operations.

Displacing most of our gas and diesel-fired generation with renewable energy is the straightforward part - we can put in a solar farms and batteries. And that's what we're doing.

For example, the 60MW solar farm which powers Fortescue's daytime operations at Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek displaces around 100 million litres of diesel every year.

But the toughest challenge is the last 20-25% within our carbon chain.

For that, we need to run carbon-free trucks, trains, ships, explosives - and we need reliable 24/7 green hydrogen.

But this stuff is scarce - and that scarcity has given heavy industry an excuse to say that it's all too hard.

Fortescue Energy does not buy that excuse.

Where the technology does not yet exist, we are going to make it happen - and we will partner with likeminded companies, governments and big thinkers to make it happen.

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